91Ó°ÊÓ

Coulomb’s law states that the magnitude of the force between two point charges is directly proportional to the product of the magnitude of the charges and inversely proportional to the separation between them. For more than two charges, the force on any charge is the vector sum of the forces exerted due to individual charges.

The expression for the force between two point charges is given as:

\(F = k\frac{{{Q_1}{Q_2}}}{{{r^2}}}\) … (i)

Here, k is the Coulomb’s constant, \({Q_1},\;{Q_2}\) are the charges and r is the separation between them.

The charge at each corner is,\(q = 6.15\;{\rm{mC}} = 6.15 \times {10^{ - 3}}\;{\rm{C}}\).

The side of the square is, \(d = 0.100\;{\rm{m}}\).

The force on the charge at A in the x-direction is given as:

\(\begin{aligned}{c}{F_x} = {F_4} + {F_3}\cos 45^\circ \\{F_x} = k\frac{{{q^2}}}{{{d^2}}} + k\frac{{{q^2}}}{{{{\left( {\sqrt 2 d} \right)}^2}}} \times \frac{1}{{\sqrt 2 }}\\{F_x} = k\frac{{{q^2}}}{{{d^2}}}\left( {1 + \frac{1}{{2\sqrt 2 }}} \right)\end{aligned}\)

Substitute the values in the above expression.

\(\begin{aligned}{l}{F_x} = \left( {9.0 \times {{10}^9}\;{\rm{N}}{{\rm{m}}^{\rm{2}}}{\rm{/}}{{\rm{C}}^{\rm{2}}}} \right)\frac{{{{\left( {6.15 \times {{10}^{ - 3}}\;{\rm{C}}} \right)}^2}}}{{{{\left( {0.100\;{\rm{m}}} \right)}^2}}}\left( {1 + \frac{1}{{2\sqrt 2 }}} \right)\\{F_x} = 4.61 \times {10^7}\;{\rm{N}}\end{aligned}\)

The force on the charge at A in the y-direction is given as:

\(\begin{aligned}{c}{F_y} = {F_2} + {F_3}\sin 45^\circ \\{F_y} = k\frac{{{q^2}}}{{{d^2}}} + k\frac{{{q^2}}}{{{{\left( {\sqrt 2 d} \right)}^2}}} \times \frac{1}{{\sqrt 2 }}\\{F_y} = k\frac{{{q^2}}}{{{d^2}}}\left( {1 + \frac{1}{{2\sqrt 2 }}}

\right)\end{aligned}\)

Substitute the values in the above expression.

\(\begin{aligned}{l}{F_y} = \left( {9.0 \times {{10}^9}\;{\rm{N}}{{\rm{m}}^{\rm{2}}}{\rm{/}}{{\rm{C}}^{\rm{2}}}} \right)\frac{{{{\left( {6.15 \times {{10}^{ - 3}}\;{\rm{C}}} \right)}^2}}}{{{{\left( {0.100\;{\rm{m}}} \right)}^2}}}\left( {1 + \frac{1}{{2\sqrt 2 }}} \right)\\{F_y} = 4.61 \times {10^7}\;{\rm{N}}\end{aligned}\)

The net force on charge A is given as:

\({F_{\rm{A}}} = \sqrt {F_x^2 + F_y^2} \)

Substitute the values in the above expression.

\(\begin{aligned}{c}{F_{\rm{A}}} = \sqrt {{{\left( {4.61 \times {{10}^7}\;{\rm{N}}} \right)}^2} + {{\left( {4.61 \times {{10}^7}\;{\rm{N}}} \right)}^2}} \\{F_{\rm{A}}} = 6.52 \times {10^7}\;{\rm{N}}\end{aligned}\)

Since all the charges are identical and they are located at the corners of a square, then from symmetry, the magnitude of the force on each charge will be the same.

Thus, the magnitude of force on each charge is \(6.52 \times {10^7}\;{\rm{N}}\).

The direction of the net force on charge A is given as:

\(\tan \alpha = \frac{{{F_{\rm{y}}}}}{{{F_{\rm{x}}}}}\)

Substitute the values in the above expression.

\(\begin{aligned}{c}\tan \alpha = \frac{{6.52 \times {{10}^7}\;{\rm{N}}}}{{6.52 \times {{10}^7}\;{\rm{N}}}}\\\alpha = {\tan ^{ - 1}}\left( 1 \right)\\\alpha = 45^\circ \end{aligned}\)

Thus, the direction of the net force on each charge is \(45^\circ \) diagonally away from the centre.